Forever
by heavenhelpmyheart
Summary: Forever can never be long enough for me to feel like I've had long enough with you. Forget the world now, we won't let them see, but there's one thing left to do...


**A/N: One-shots are such a wonderful cure for writer's block! Have this little one that mostly ignores Nationals and NYADA letters and other such unimportant canon things, but is cute Klaine.**

* * *

"Let's have a little chat," Burt said to the respectfully dressed boy waiting on his living room couch. He was quite fond of his son's boyfriend, but he knew this conversation was coming ever since he had seen Kurt and Rachel shopping for rings.

"I'm taking Kurt out to dinner." Blaine, he knew, wasn't trying to avoid the conversation, but rather wanting to be the absolutely perfect boyfriend for his son, and he admired that.

"Fashion emergency," Burt replied shortly. Kurt had been freaking out about his outfit since three that afternoon and had not left the basement since. It was probable that he would still be a while, because he never had anything to wear, despite his ever-growing designer wardrobe.

"He shouldn't be long." Well, he certainly leveled out Kurt's pessimism quite nicely.

"Don't ever think his obsession with you will overtake his obsession with fashion. Let's chat," Burt repeated, sitting next to Blaine on the couch. This wouldn't be an easy conversation, for either of them, but it needed to be had before the kid made a mess of things.

"Okay, sir." Burt had tried to cure Blaine of his habit of calling him 'sir' (made him feel old) but the kid was too damn polite for his own good.

"What are your intentions with my son?" The question was something most parents would have asked much earlier in the relationship, but Burt had a point he wanted to get to. When he asked, all the color drained out of Blaine's face.

"Uh.. I-I hadn't.." The poor kid seemed at a loss for words. Perhaps it really was cruel to go about it this way. Oh well, a little fear does a boy good.

"The way I see it, you two will be together for a while. I see the way he looks at you, and you look the same way at him. Now I don't know what you have or haven't done... " Burt swallowed uncomfortably, "in the bedroom, but I trust Kurt to make reasonable decisions, and I trust you not to pressure him." Blaine looked as scared as he had when Burt first spoke to him as his boyfriend's dad, much more scared then when he had approached Burt at the garage.

"Mr. Hummel, I-' Burt cut off the hopelessly confused boy.

"What's that line of that song Kurt likes? The one I caught him dancing to with the two girls?" Blaine seemed to know everything about Kurt, he would know what Burt was talking about.

"_If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it_," Blaine half-sang quietly before realizing what Burt meant. The older man could practically _see_ the light bulb go on in Blaine's head.

"Exactly. The way I see it, that girl singing it had some brains going for her." Not that he knew who the singer was, of course. The nervous boy chuckled absentmindedly, obviously trying to process Burt's words.

"You want me to marry your son." The kid sounded shell-shocked, and Burt didn't blame him, but that wasn't quite what he had meant.

"No, I want you to ask my son to marry you. Two entirely different concepts. I think, and Carole and Finn agree, that you guys are mature enough to handle such a big step. Kurt's far more mature than he should be, and I blame myself for that, but you're not far behind him." He and Carole had only started talking about this after it became part of Kurt's nightly routine to watching _The Wedding Singer_.

"You want me to ask Kurt to marry me?" Blaine repeated, obviously daunted by the idea. As if Kurt would say 'no'.

"I want you to think about it. He's going away to New York next year, and you're not following him for a while. I would say this could cause problems but... he looks at you the exact same way I looked at his mother." That seemed to strike a chord with Blaine, which surprised Burt. Kurt usually didn't talk about his mom very much, it was painful for all involved, the fact that Blaine knew the depth of what he meant definitely said something about their relationship.

"Ready to go?" Kurt asked, hovering by the door. Burt cleared his throat, resisting the urge to comment on his son's inappropriately tight outfit. It didn't seem fitting after the conversation he had just had with Blaine.

"Yeah, definitely." Burt _really_ didn't like the way that kid was looking at his son.

* * *

After a week and a half of worrying, including occasional rants and snapping at everyone due to lack of sleep, Blaine had finally made his decision. He was a little worried about the outcome as he walking into the jewelry store in Columbus. Rings could always be shipped in, but he would see what Ohio had to offer first.

The man at the counter seemed nice enough, and could almost be gay himself. The best word to describe him would be... 'wispy'. "Hi," Blaine said, slightly shy, walking up to the counter. "Do you have any male engagement rings?"

The clerk gave him an up and down look. "How old are you, sweetie?" The way he said 'sweetie' confirmed Blaine's original guess.

"Seventeen." Surprisingly, the next look to clerk gave him wasn't judgmental, but kind.

"Well, you're shiny in love from across the street," the clerk said with a wink, making Blaine blush slightly. "Male engagement rings come in twos, one for each of you, and they usually have a bit of variation between them." The clerk pushed a rack of engagement rings towards Blaine as he spoke. They all looked nice, but nothing screamed Kurt to him.

"I..." How did he explain that their ring collection wasn't good enough for the amazing man that he hoped would be his fiancé without insulting the clerk?

"Nothing screaming out to you?" The clerk asked with a knowing look. "Let's see. Do you have a picture of your honey?" Blaine blushed, but pulled out his wallet. It wasn't a school picture of Kurt, or anything else formal. It was a picture from their awkward double 'not-date' with Mercedes and Sam at BreadstiX. The two were curled up in one end of a booth, turned towards each other. Blaine was talking, so his face looked absolutely silly, but the way Kurt was _looking_ at him, like nothing else in the world mattered but him, made him smile whenever he saw it. Their hands were conjoined on the back of their booth, and Rachel had put it best when she said 'it's your relationship, in a nutshell.' Of course, then the 'nut' jokes had to be made, but it was true.

"He's beautiful," the clerk commented, and Blaine nodded. He really was stunning. "Let me guess, feminine, but not overly so. He hates being treated like or called a girl. There's something uniquely masculine about him that seems completely shocking to anyone who doesn't know him."

"Mechanic," Blaine replied, shocked by the clerk's perception. "How can you tell all of this?"

"You can just see it, after a while. Now, how about..." the clerk seemed to be talking to himself, digging through a box. "Extra-curriculars?" It was an odd question to ask, but Blaine answered anyway.

"He's a football player." The clerk's eyebrows raised, but he didn't say anything, instead preferring to look through another display. "He's also a cheerleader." The clerk's eyebrows practically reached his hairline on that one.

"How does one do both?" he asked, moving to another section of the store.

"He's amazing," Blaine answered honestly, because that was really the only explanation. Of course, he hadn't done either of those things for over two years, but that wasn't important.

"Does he sing?" Clearly, he had gotten the Mentalist for a jewelry store clerk.

"Like an angel," Blaine said, blushing slightly when he realized how cheesy that sounded. Well, he _did_... quite literally.

"Range?" The clerk seemed unfazed. Well, he did seem to be attached to the couple, even though he had never met Kurt.

"Countertenor." And there those eyebrows go again. The clerk moved over to yet another display, and Blaine wondered how many male engagement rings they could possibly have in this store.

"Highest note?" The clerk seemed to enjoy firing off questions left and right.

"F5 that I know of." The clerk had now reached a full circle and pulled a box out from under the cash register.

"Here we go. These aren't technically supposed to be for sale yet, but they're perfect for you two." He showed Blaine the most perfect pair of rings. There was a horizontal black band in the middle, surrounded by silver bands on both sides. On one (which would be Blaine's), there was one diamond in the black band. On the other (Kurt's) there were three, a larger one in the middle, and two smaller ones on the side.

"They're beautiful. How much?" The clerk pursed his lips.

"For you, 200 each." Blaine's eyes practically popped out of his head. That was a _steal_.

"These are far more expensive than that." Blaine was young, not stupid.

"Yeah, but you two are too cute together not to get a discount." Blaine must have still looked skeptical, because the clerk changed tactics. "Tell you what, you get that price, and you do me a favor as well. My idiotic boss says 100% of teenagers that buy engagement rings here return them within a month. You prove that asshole wrong, all right?" The clerk asked with a wink, and he genuinely seemed like a nice man.

"Thank you," Blaine said. The look the clerk gave him when he pulled four one hundred dollar bills out of his wallet was priceless, but he didn't comment.

"Bye, love..." the clerk called after him as he left the store with the engagement rings in his pocket.

* * *

Blaine was all nerves for the next few weeks, and that was clearly visible to anyone who knew him. Kurt, of course, could read him like a book, and wouldn't stop pestering Blaine to tell him what was wrong. Nothing was wrong, of course, but Blaine couldn't tell Kurt what he was up to.

Kurt had been suspicious when Blaine had walked up to him two weeks before his graduation and asked him to a big romantic picnic that he had been planning for a while. It was natural for him to be suspicious after weeks of having a boyfriend that was either snappy, withdrawn, or nerve-filled, but he agreed nonetheless.

Burt had been thrilled with the news that Blaine actually planned to propose. Of course, he had also warned Blaine that there would be no wedding until _far_ in the future. This was a symbol, he said, of Blaine's dedication to his son, nothing more, nothing less. Finn had been the one to make the joke that this would be an excellent way for Kurt to ward off guys in bars, but all that had done was make Blaine feel sick to his stomach at the idea of Kurt alone in a gay bar in New York City.

The planning in itself had been stressful as well, but thankfully he wasn't alone. Once he had sworn her to absolute secrecy, a mostly-recovered Quinn had been thrilled to help Blaine planned. Not that he didn't love them, but Rachel and Mercedes couldn't keep secrets to save their lives, and Brittany wouldn't remember it was a secret and blurt it out to someone.

"Do you have everything set up?" Quinn asked him the day before the picnic. He had chosen a beautiful spot: a park that Kurt used to go to with his mother, near a fountain Kurt loved and plenty of flowers in bloom at this time of year.

The only thing he had really needed to set up was the actual picnic, and find a way to get his guitar to the park without Kurt noticing. Quinn had been more than happy to help, and was placing his guitar in the area of the park Blaine had reserved about fifteen minutes before Kurt and Blaine were scheduled to get there.

"Of course. Our area of the park is subtly marked off, you're planting my guitar, I got food he will actually _eat_," Kurt's dietary habits had been a pain in the butt for Blaine's planning, "and I've been practicing the song. All I need is a 'yes.'" That was Blaine's biggest fear, that Kurt would think it was a crazy idea and say 'no'.

"Blaine, how many times do I have to tell you that Kurt will say 'yes'?" Quinn asked in the no-nonsense voice she usually only reserved for when she was talking to Puck or Finn.

"You can say that all you would like, but that doesn't make it true," Blaine countered, resisting the urge to bite his nails (a horrible habit that he had broken years ago and was now coming back with his nerves).

"Blaine," Quinn said firmly. "He's going to say 'yes'." And that, Blaine knew, was final.

* * *

"The park is beautiful this time of year," Kurt commented as they walked hand-in-hand along the path towards his favorite fountain. Kurt had been thrilled when Blaine finally told him where they were going, and he had obviously put aside whatever qualms he had been having and was all smiles.

"Not as beautiful as you," Blaine said automatically, making Kurt blush. He knew Kurt didn't like cheesy, preferring romantic, but sometimes he couldn't help but say things like that, because they were _true_.

"Blaine?" Kurt asked, and Blaine hummed as a signal to go on. "Can I ask you something crazy?"

"As long as I get to ask you something crazy later," Blaine replied, thinking this could be the perfect segue to his question, considering they were near where his guitar was planted.

"Would you believe it if I told you I thought you were going to break up with me for a good three weeks?" Kurt asked, and Blaine stopped and turned so he could gape at his boyfriend. Logically, it made sense, after what had happened with Chandler and the way Blaine had been acting lately, but it was still a shock.

"What? No! God, no. No, no, no. I know I've been a bit distant lately, but no. I never even... no," Blaine blurted all this out, and Kurt just giggled. He took Blaine's hand again and they started back towards the fountain

"I don't think that _now_. I just did for a while," Kurt said, and Blaine shook his head agian.

"No, I definitely wasn't. I just... I've been thinking." Blaine said, backing away from Kurt slowly to sit on the bench next to the fountain.

"About..." Kurt asked, sitting on the bench next to him and smiling when Blaine wrapped an arm around him. They both ignored the height difference as much as possible.

Blaine took a breath and looked over at Kurt, the sight immediately stealing that breath away. Kurt looked absolutely _ethereal._ His eyes were the color of the summer sky, the sunlight glinted off his chestnut hair, and his plump pink lips were curled into a soft smile. His skin was as pale as porcelain, like too rough a touch could break him into a million pieces, but he was strong enough to be himself in Ohio. Blaine fell in love all over again in that moment.

"You're going to New York next year, and I'm staying here. I'm thrilled for you, of course, but I'll miss you so much. I know you've dreamed of the city for so many years, and all your dreams could come true there. The Big Apple has such wonderful opportunities for someone as amazing as you, and it's one of the most liberal states in the country. Being there will be the best thing that ever happened, first to you, then to me, and I have no doubt that-"

"Blaine," Kurt cut him off with a warm smile, eyes dancing. "You're rambling."

Blaine took another deep breath and thought for a moment. He was the luckiest guy in the world, he knew that, and as romantic as he wanted this to be, short and sweet was probably the best way to do it.

"I love you," he blurted out suddenly, and Kurt smiled, his cheeks flushing a light pink. Blaine grabbed Kurt's hands and pulled him off the bench. "And if you stand right... _here_," Blaine walked Kurt over to the fountain, positioning him right across from where Quinn had stashed his guitar. Kurt was giggling and one of his rare teeth-showing smiles lit up his face. "I have a song for you."

Blaine backed up, keeping his eyes mock-warily on Kurt, making Kurt laugh. He grabbed his guitar from the bushes behind him (thanking his lucky stars that he hadn't had to dig around too much to find it. Kurt would've died laughing before Blaine even got started), and Kurt raised an eyebrow, leaning against the fountain behind him in a way that made him look positively _inviting._ Blaine had to work to remember the first few words of the song. He had rewritten it a little. After all, there was no need to pop the question thirteen times.

_Forever can never be long enough for me  
To feel like I've had long enough with you  
Forget the world now, we won't let them see  
But there's one thing left to do  
Now that the weight has lifted  
Love has surely shifted my way_

_Together can never be close enough for me  
To feel like I am close enough to you  
You wear white and I'll wear out the words I love you  
And you're beautiful  
Now that the wait is over  
And love has finally showed you my way_

_Promise me you'll always be  
Happy by my side  
I promise to sing to you  
When all the music dies_

_And marry me  
Today and everyday  
_

_Say you will  
Say you will  
Marry me_

Kurt's jaw had dropped the first time Blaine had said the scariest words on the planet (even scarier, he thought, than saying 'I love you' for the first time. The crushing weight of rejection that he would have to tell others about weighed here). By the end of Blaine's shortened song, Kurt's eyes were shining with un-shed tears.

"Blaine... I..." Kurt seemed at a loss for words, which was unusual in itself. The fact that he was almost crying made Blaine's stomach churn with fear, but he promised himself he wouldn't chicken out.

"Kurt Hummel," Blaine began, taking his guitar off and placing it on the ground, getting on one knee in front of a still speechless Kurt, grabbing his left hand and holding out the ring box that had been burning a hole in his pocket for the last few weeks, "will you marry me?" The squeal Kurt made that moment he would deny for the rest of his life.

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes, a billion times, yes!" Kurt shrieked, pulling Blaine up and hugging him, knocking the ring box out of his hand. "Yes," he breathed into Blaine's ear, holding him close like he never wanted to let go.

Blaine held him for a few moments, mostly relieved that Kurt hadn't laughed at him or been affronted (after all, he had been vehement in his lack of support for Rachel and Finn). "Um, Kurt?" he asked after a bit. "Not that I don't appreciate the positive reaction, but I kind of have a ring for you that is currently on a box in the ground." Kurt giggled and Blaine stuttered out, "I mean, in a box on-" Before Blaine could finish his sentence, Kurt released his... _fiancé_ and gave him a sweet kiss to shut him up.

"I know what you mean," he murmured against Blaine's lips, pulling away. Once Kurt's very distracting hands (and lips) had released Blaine, he stooped to get the ring box and open it, holding out Kurt's ring for his approval.

"Blaine, it's..." Kurt began, but Blaine started rambling when he paused.

"I thought about getting you a diamond, but you're not a girl, and I know you can be dramatic, but jewelry is something you're generally more subdued about, and-"

"It's beautiful," Kurt cut off his rambling again. Blaine had lost track of how many times he had done that this afternoon.

"Just like you," Blaine whispered, feeling the moment was too perfect to break, and Kurt smiled, his cheeks reddening. Blaine took the box from Kurt and pulled the ring out (with only a little struggle, thankfully). Kurt's smile was threatening to break his face as Blaine looked up at him and slid the ring onto his left ring finger. "I love you, Kurt," he whispered.

Kurt was obviously more observant than Blaine gave him credit for being. Kurt's hand ducked into his pocket and pulled out the other box in there, the one with Blaine's ring in it. Smoothly opening the box and pulling the ring out in a way that made Blaine jealous, Kurt slipped the ring onto Blaine's left ring finger and kissed his knuckles. "I love you too, Blaine."

* * *

**Song is: **_'Marry Me'_ by Train

**Reviews are love.**


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